The question of money supply and inflation has been erroneously been set in stone predominantly by the debasement of Spain and Britain during the period of Henry VIII. This was really a period where there were various countries and their currency completely relied on the exchange market in Amsterdam, which was based entirely upon their metal content. This period was far less judgmental insofar as we have today where currencies rise and fall purely on anticipation of political events. During the middle ages, this influence of anticipating future value based upon possible political decisions was not readily dominant and the coins of one nation were compared entirely on their metal content.
For example, because of the French at war with Britain, they created a wave of inflation that spread like a contagion to other nations, namely Spain and Italy, because money was commodity based using gold and silver. In this way, there was really a single currency base among nations and the problems of one would be exported to all others by their debasement.
We can see that wages more than doubled even in Spain as inflation became a contagion. To cover the cost of war, France began debasing their gold and silver coinage. There was clearly economic pressure for in 1305, the French Crown issued a restored monetary system. The gros now appears at 12d fine and the denier are also returned to a sound MONEY standard. These were now worth 300% greater than the debased coinage in circulation. The gros was now worth 10.5 deniers for with the end of the war, precious metals fell in value for a marc of silver collapsed back to 56s 8dt. Despite the end of the war, gold demand remained strong in all countries. By 1311, the coinage once again was debased as precious metals rose in value. A new gold coin was issued known as the angel d’or that was valued at 20 st. The silver to gold ration now jumped to 15:1. Silver begins to disappear being hoarded and gold becomes more commonly struck in France and England. Yet the volatility seems to have been incredible for the times. Gold prices crashed in value and the agnel d’or dropped from 20st to 15st. Silver collapsed falling 25% in value at this time, yet the silver to gold ratio remained at 15:1.
Silver began a three-year rally reaching a ratio of 12:1 in 1316. This rally coincided with the death of Philip IV, but his successor, Louis X (1314-1316), appears to have struck no silver gros whatsoever. The only coins struck in his name are the gold angel. The coinage reflects a surge in inflation as reflected in wages going into 1329. We see bullion prices rising again starting in 1322 whereby in October that year, there appears to be a significant debasement whereby the fineness collapses to about 47%. The debasement continued in 1323 and again into 1326.
The Capetian dynasty dies with the three sons of Philip IV, none of whom had produced a male heir and thereby the line passed to the Valois Dynasty. We come now to a Monetary Reform of 1330, with a major effort to restore sound MONEY once again. They did learn that one could not simply return the MONEY supply to a sound footing overnight. They tried to phase it in more gradually, for it has the tendency to lead to the new MONEY merely being hoarded. Nevertheless, this monetary reform under the new Valois Dynasty was short-lived, for, in 1337, there was the start of the Hundred Years War with England and the invasion of Edward III (1327-1377).
Their accounting books of Peruzzi Company, one the main Florence bankers, covering the period of 1335 to 1343 have survived to provide us with the detailed footnotes to the history of this period. For by 1330, the Peruzzi Company was the second largest banking house in Europe, just behind the Bardi, with 15 branches covering the Middle East all the way up to London. They were not just a super-rich merchant-banking firm they were one of the earliest truly international companies to emerge. Their capitalization stood at 100,000 gold florin in 1330 and they had a staff of about 100 people. The Peruzzi had made a fortune on taking English wool and turning it into fine cloth in Bruges, and selling luxury products to Avignon, London, Paris, and Naples to mention a few. They also dealt in spices, silk, drugs, and other luxury items from the East. They emerged as a great wholesaler supplying credit to the lesser merchants and creating a vast sales network. They became dealers in large quantities of commodities that even included grain from Italy. Yet with the defaults of Edward III, the Peruzzi collapsed in 1343 and were driven into bankruptcy by 1345.
Because of the French/English war, the French drove the price of silver up dramatically. In Florence, they utilized a two-tier monetary system with silver used as the domestic coinage for wages and gold for international transaction much as Bretton Woods after Roosevelt’s confiscation of gold in 1934 domestically. Because of the French debasement, the price of silver rose and this disrupted the economy in Florence. Companies could no longer pay wages in silver and businesses failed. As unemployment rose, the people, not understanding the real cause, stormed the palaces of the banks and burned them to the ground. The bankers were blamed for the action of kings.
Therefore, the precious metal monetary system was by NO MEANS a good stable system where money was tangible. It also allowed for contagions that people did not understand. If we are going to create a new monetary system, the “reserve” currency cannot be one of any single nation. It must be a basket at best for this is the ONLY way to prevent contagions. Currently, with the dollar as the reserve currency, because we still use Demand Economics, then the raising or lowering of interest rates sets in motions contagions that will either export inflation or deflation to other countries. We need to understand how contagions take place and their origin.
Long time follower of your site. Though I don’t always agree with your conclusions, I value your site as a great source of ideas that challenge my conceptions of how things work. Keep up the good work.
Having just read the story on the front page of the NY times about the upcoming Trump-Putin summit, I was curious as to wether you think there is any connection between the just confirmed summit on July 16 and the July 12th ECM turning point.
I know that a few of the previous turning points coincided with key events in Russia’s intervention in the Syrian Civil war. I remember you stating on your blog at the time that the alignment of key events in that conflict with the ECM suggested an important connection. Given events on the ground in Syria currently pointing to a conclusion in that conflict (with Russia, Iran and Syrian as the victors and the USA, KSA and Israel as losers), I wonder if you would care to speculate what July 12 ECM might bring with regards to that conflict.
Best regards,
JM
REPLY: This turning point is not the big one insofar as politics is concerned. However, events seem to gravitate around these points in time. This is war is building, but it is not really between Trump and Putin personally. The bureaucracy in the USA seems to want war. Perhaps as a diversion for economic problems with social programs. But the greater risk is a religious war between Iran and Saudi Arabia and we are seeing a rise in Shiites in Iraq. Taking Saddam Hussein out was really stupid. Both he and Qaddafi helped to keep the religious factions in check. With both gone, this is building into a religious confrontation. You even have the leadership in Turkey that is desperate to reestablish the Ottoman Empire also as a diversion for economic chaos at home.
What is interesting is that the quarterly arrays are lining up with the ECM for the first quarter turning point. It definitely looks very interesting for the remainder of this ECM wave.
Last month the White House presented a 36-page outline of the U.S. position toward trade with China (full pdf below). White House National Trade Council and Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy Director Peter Navarro delivers a presentation to discuss that report. Very well worth watching:
President Donald J Trump, First Lady Melania Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and Second Lady Karen Pence host an independence day picnic at the White House for administration officials and military families.
Senator Rand Paul from Kentucky delivers a message to celebrate the Fourth of July, Independence Day.
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Reflecting on liberty through Senator Rand Paul’s last year (2017 through 2018):
♦ Shot at while practicing for a congressional baseball game.
♦ Attacked in his front yard while mowing his lawn; hospitalized.
♦ Family threatened by mad man with an axe; recently arrested.
The colonies had been in conflict with England for over a year in June of 1776. A Continental Congress convened in Philadelphia on June 7 of that year. Richard Henry Lee from Virginia offered up a resolution with these now famous words:
“Resolved: That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved.”
Lee’s words spurred the drafting of the Declaration of Independence. A committee of five was appointed to draft a statement making the case for the colonies, a statement to the world of the intent and the reason behind that intent.
Members of the Committee were John Adams of Massachusetts, Roger Sherman of Connecticut, Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania, Robert R. Livingston of New York and Thomas Jefferson of Virginia. Jefferson took on the task of actually drafting the document as we know it today.
The Continental Congress reconvened on July 1, 1776, and on the following day, the resolution for independence by Lee was adopted by 12 of the 13 colonies, with New York not voting. Minor changes were made to the Jefferson document.
Work on the document continued through July 3 and into the afternoon of July 4, when the Declaration was officially adopted by the Congress. Of the 13 colonies, nine voted in favor of the Declaration, two — Pennsylvania and South Carolina — voted No, Delaware was undecided and New York again abstained.
As we all know, John Hancock, President of the Congress made his signature large enough for King George to read “without his spectacles.”
IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. – That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, – That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. – Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
The complete list of those who signed were:
John Hancock (president of the Continental Congress), Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry, Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery, Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott, William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris, Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark, Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross, Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean, Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton, George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton, William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn, Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton, Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, and George Walton.
Check out this link for the sobering fate of many of those who so pledged their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor. H/T to TheOriginalG-d&Country for this source.
Those are the facts about our Declaration of Independence, the history that we as school children have learned since the creation of this great nation that we celebrate, that we love and honor so.
Usually we humans can’t adequately find words to express our own sentiments, let alone those of a nation and successive generations to come, but Jefferson and that Continental Congress did just that.
The words have stood throughout several centuries as a clarion call for freedom, for breaking free of tyranny, for men to put aside their individual causes and join together to battle for the right of every man, woman and child together to become a people united in goal and resolve.
Today as we celebrate, today as we pledge allegiance to a flag that has gone from 13 stars to 50, may we remember not only the sacrifice, but the resolve. May we honor not only the words, but the unity and deeds of our forefathers. May each of us dig deep into our hearts and work out our differences for the betterment of our nation and our children and grandchildren.
Say a prayer for America today. Rekindle hope today. Honor the past by determining the future.
Please remember that this is a post in honor of our Independence Day. No political content, no rants, so slamming the other side. Today we are just Americans, honoring our country and each other.
Thanks to asawasa for posting this on another thread. I wanted to add it here.
The Supreme Court’s decision to allow every state to tax the internet is complete insanity. Sources in Illinois are warning that the state is bankrupt and it now intends to wage an all-out assault upon the internet. They may, in the end, simply force many small companies to REFUSE to do business with anyone who lives in Illinois. From a business perspective, all you get are costs. They do not pay you to collect their taxes, and in the end, they subject you to huge fines, penalties, and prison for a job that amounts to indentured servitude. Where are the class action lawyers to make that argument? On top of that, if a policeman from New Jersey has NO JURISDICTION to arrest someone in another state, then how can the state impose forced employment on persons from other states? Constitutionally they cannot!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They also violate the Commerce Clause.
Expect California to be next. We are looking at the real destruction of the economy. What if every nation then follows the same design because everyone is going broke trying to cover their own pensions? So to sell anything on the internet you suddenly have to file papers even stating you sold nothing in 50 states inside the USA. Using the same legal principles, then at the United Nations, the member states are 193 in total. Would a small business then have to file also in 193 countries and then state and provinces within each stating they DID NOT conduct business in their jurisdiction or go to prison?
If you asked how the West could collapse and everything move to China, the Supreme Court just delivered the means to accomplish that result. The problem is that Congress could overrule that, but they will not because they are NOT the representatives of the people. They represent the government. Someone MUST create a petition to Donald Trump directly. He would at least understand the problem.
Illinois should either dissolve itself or go bankrupt to end the pensions they cannot renegotiate.
West Virginia Governor Jim Justice welcomes President Donald J. Trump at the Salute to Service Dinner at the Greenbrier Resort as part of A Military Tribute at the Greenbrier. Anticipated speech 6:45pm EDT:
I have created this site to help people have fun in the kitchen. I write about enjoying life both in and out of my kitchen. Life is short! Make the most of it and enjoy!
This is a library of News Events not reported by the Main Stream Media documenting & connecting the dots on How the Obama Marxist Liberal agenda is destroying America
Centinel2012 